Chapter 28

Which is exactly what she did.

All she had was her ax and her hands, but they were enough. She hacked away at the snow; she scraped and scooped it. She didn’t realize her hands had completely frozen until the three of them were inside the cave. The warmth made her fingers throb.

“Where’d you get that extra pack?” her father asked.

She told him she found it buried in the snow, but she didn’t tell him about the body in the crevice. He was in enough pain already. She didn’t want to give him anything else to worry about.

Still, the backpack might prove to be a lifesaver. Literally. The buckles were still frozen, which was weird. Shouldn’t they have thawed by now? It was almost as if the backpack didn’t want to be opened.

Near the entrance to the cave, Kendal set up the propane stove from Jeremy’s pack. She melted snow for them to drink. The heat of the blue flame warmed her fingers and face and sent more heat down into the small snow cave.

Jeremy opened his eyes again and was able to sit up and drink a few sips of tea and swallow a crushed pain reliever.

“Where am I?” he said.

“You’re on the mountain,” her father said. “But we’re safe thanks to Kendal.”

“Thanks to the deadman anchor,” Kendal said.

“Radio for help,” Jeremy said.

“We tried,” her father said.

The radio was broken. Kendal had watched her father try to fix it, perhaps a way to distract himself from the pain, but the radio never turned on. They tried her father’s phone too, but after a couple attempts the battery died. And Jeremy had no phone, because he had brought the radio instead.

Time slowly passed in the cave. There was nothing they could do but wait. Wait and think. It only now occurred to her that Nellie Bly’s family had been stuck in a cave as well. Where had the story said they were on the mountain again? She couldn’t remember. Was it possible that this was the exact same cave?

No, that would be impossible. There must be dozens (or hundreds? or even thousands?) of caves in the mountain. Right?

“It’s getting late,” her father said, bringing Kendal out of her thoughts.

“I wish we could call Mom and let her know we are okay,” she said. They were supposed to be down from the mountain by early afternoon. Her mother would have called the ranger station and ordered a rescue team by now.

“Your mom knows we’re fine,” Kendal’s father said. “I sent her a message just now. I used to do it all the time on the ship. Letting her know when I couldn’t call her that I was all right, that I was thinking of her and you—I sent it with my heart and mind.”

Kendal crawled next to her father and the two of them fell asleep.

The next morning, Kendal had to dig herself out of the cave. The entire opening had once again filled up with snow. When she finally cleared out the door, she hoped to see that the snow had stopped, but it hadn’t. She could only see about six feet away.

Kendal knew she had to at least mark where they were so she positioned her bright red backpack outside the front door. Would that be enough? Would a rescue team spot the pack?

The snow was still practically blinding. She seriously doubted a puny backpack would do the trick.

Maybe she could construct some other type of signal? Or make a trail to the cave?

She had to do something; she’d sat around long enough.

Soon, the propane would run out. So would the food and the medicine.

“I should go for help,” Kendal said to her father.

To her surprise, her father didn’t object. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry I dragged you up this mountain, kid. I should have listened to you. A beach vacation. That’s what we’re going to do when we get off this mountain. Sit on a warm beach in the sun.”

Kendal smiled at this.

When her father turned back to Jeremy, she went over to the small backpack. Finally, she was able to unbuckle it. She dumped the contents out on her lap. There was a bright red climbing rope. A frozen phone. And some . . . rocks? But why would someone carry rocks in their pack? Wouldn’t they just weigh the person down? She turned on her headlamp and saw that these were not rocks.

They were gold.

Gold nuggets, to be precise. Some of them the size of her fist.

Nellie Bly’s cursed gold. She was sure of it. The snowboarder had somehow found it and made the mistake of trying to leave the mountain with it.

Kendal wouldn’t make the same mistake.